I’m afraid I didn’t care for this book very much. I thought the premise sounded interesting, if far-fetched. But I was willing to overlook that and suspend my disbelief a little. The author, sadly, asked too much of the reader. Hope seemed like a nice girl, but was way too much of a doormat to her sister. And Brent just seemed clueless. We are supposed to believe that a man doesn’t recognize the woman he is going to marry. No, it isn’t a love match, but to expect the reader to believe that the guy doesn’t notice all the red flags is too much of an ask. And while Hope could have come clean at any number of times, she let the charade go on far too long. By the time it was said and done I wouldn’t have blamed Brent and his family one bit if they had told Hope never to darken their door again. Like I said, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief, but only up to a point. And this book went past that point, down the block and around the corner. Not recommended.
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Cute rom-com with hints of the movie “While You Were Sleeping” and with a twist
I truly enjoyed this cute and sweet romance. Not a lot of steam but it made up for that by being well-written with great characters who I wanted to meet;-) Except for maybe Jackie…
Identical twins Hope and Jackie have played the game of pretending to be one another to see if they could actually fool people. This time they are playing a much more serious game. Jackie is very involved in her own career as a Wedding Planner. Too busy to take care of her own? What happens when the pretend Jackie starts to fall for the very real Jackie’s fiancé, Brent? What happens when Brent’s family who has begun to actually like the pretend Jackie, finds out? The reader can see the train wreck coming, but will Hope and Brent reconcile this badly played game?
I volunteered to review an ARC of this book through Entangled/NetGalley and it is highly recommended for readers who love low-steam, well-written romantic comedies. Looking forward to future books about Ava and Gavin or Derrick and Meredith…hint, hint, hint! I give it a HEARTy 4.5 Stars.

3.75 stars
The Duplicate Bride by Ginny Baird was an interesting sister-switch romance. Hope and Jackie are twin sisters. When Jackie is going to be late going to Blue Hill, Maine for her wedding week with her fiancé Brent's family, she asks Hope to go in her place. Hope isn't going to switch places with her sister, she's going to let them know she's Jackie's sister and will be helping, but when she sees Grandmother Margaret give her the eye because she thinks she's Jackie and didn't think she would prioritize her own wedding, Hope ends up keeping the charade that she is Jackie. Everyone just assumes she is, which concerns her about Brent. Hope learns that Brent and Jackie are having a marriage of convenience and decides that she'll help their relationship by forming a connection for Jackie. As she and Brent spend time together, she starts falling for him. But she can't, because she's still impersonating Jackie. And while she thinks that Brent is falling for her as well, she knows that the longer the charade goes on, the more likely it will be that he and his family will get hurt. Hope is starting to love Brent and his family, and as the days continue with the charade, she doesn't know what will happen.

I really liked this romance! It kept me hooked because I liked Hope and Brent together and their interactions were great. I will say that keeping a charade for so long and taking it as far as Hope and Jackie did is really unrealistic and wasn't that great in the book. I didn't like how it played out. But I did like in the beginning, and seeing Hope and Brent's relationship form. I liked the family, they were all great characters. This is a clean romance, the most Hope and Brent do on screen is kiss, and I kind of wish they did more. But if you prefer clean romance, this is definitely the book for you. My main issue was the ending. The charade went on for too long in my opinion, and then the climax and resolution were so short, only about 10% of the book. I wish there had been a little more about the aftermath. Overall, I liked this romance a lot. It's a great trope and I thought it was well done.

Note: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions shared are my own.

I was unfortunately disappointed by Ginny Baird’s The Duplicate Bride. I usually enjoy twin-swap books, and I found that the story flowed well between the two main character’s points of view. My issues with Jackie and the length of the twin-swap simply made The Duplicate Bride difficult for me to read.

In the story, Hope goes to take over her twin’s, Jackie, duties, while Jackie wraps up things at her job. Hope didn’t plan on impersonating her twin, like Jackie originally wanted Hope to do, but as Brent’s family mistakenly identifies her as Jackie and under Brent’s grandmother’s high expectations of Jackie Hope pretends to be her sister. What Hope didn’t know, however, was that Brent and Jackie’s marriage is more of a business agreement than a loving relationship.

Initially, I was really into the story. Hope and Brent had great chemistry, and I was invested in seeing how things would play out between the two. As the story went on and as Jackie continued to postpone her arrival, I got extremely frustrated with the length of time the twin-swap was lasting. The fact that Hope was pretending to be Jackie before Jackie’s wedding made it additionally problematic. I had difficulty finishing The Duplicate Bride because there seemed to be no end.

Honestly, I was able to accept Hope’s digressions because of her initial good intentions. I also accepted Brent’s flaws and his reasoning for entering the business-like marriage agreement. Jackie was my largest issue with the book. I was simply never able to sympathize with her. I thought that Jackie’s reasoning for continually postponing her arrival and her reasoning for entering the business-like marriage in the first place was weak. I would have liked to have seen her redeem herself more.

I did enjoy how the story ended. I liked how Hope and Brent made up for their mistakes. I’m also a sucker for snail mail. It honestly ended on a sweet note.

Overall, The Duplicate Bride by Ginny Baird simply wasn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean that you may not enjoy it. So if the story intrigues you and you enjoy twin-swap plots, I’d recommend checking The Duplicate Bride out.

The Duplicate Bride by Ginny Baird was a sweet and fun read about finding what you need when you least expect it. Hope’s twin sister, Jackie, wants her to take her place during their pre-wedding festivities. Can Hope pull it off? They are so different. Where Hope is more easy-going, Jackie is a workaholic. What she never expected was to love the family of her fiancé and now Brent notices something different about his fiancé. Something he likes. How will it all end? This was a fun and charming read.

Happy reading!

Oh boy talk about twins being mischevious yet in a funny and romantic way. We have Hope Webb, average and beautiful teacher on a break from her school kids. All she wanted was to spend her summer relaxing then comes in a hurricane her twin sister, Jackie. Boy these two and Ben was a hoot to read seeing Hope with all her lies and stopping her heart from falling for Ben was wow. Ginny Baird not only shows us two twins that are alike but man so different in every way from their personalities to well even their careers. I loved seeing how Ginny not only shows us Hope find love but also afraid because of what she has done so far. We see Hope's artistic and crazy mother to Ben's somewhat rich family felt like a modern day Sweet Home Alabama family wedding complete with craziness and love. Jackie, however seemed too into her business it was easy to see why she was perfect for Ben's plans. This was a great treat to read and even though it was more of Hope we see Ben feelings things he has closed for a while now. Loved it and beautifully written by Ginny.

"I received an eBook copy from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own."

Hope Webb has not had good luck with her love life. She is a teacher who has just finished the school year and is looking forward to a summer of rest. Her twin sister, Jackie, a wedding planner, is marrying the wealthy Brent Albright at his grandparents home in Maine. Hope will be leaving soon to attend the wedding.

Jackie calls her in a panic saying that there has been a glitch in the wedding she is handling for clients which means she will be a few days late getting to Brent’s grandparents home. She asks Hope to pretend to be her just as they did a few times when they were young. Hope does not like it but when she arrives in Maine, it is assumed that she is Jackie, even by Brent, so she decides to go along with it until her sister arrives. She is surprised to find some family members treat her with disdain and even Brent doesn’t show affection like a fiancé would. She soon learns that Brent and Jackie have planned a marriage of convenience. Who does that? As the days pass closer to the wedding, Jackie continues to have delays, but Hope and Brent get to know one another better and realize a true attraction. Hope also gains the trust and friendship of Brent’s family. Can Hope now stand aside while Jackie marries the man she has fallen in love with?

I’m conflicted about my feelings on this book. Twin swapping is a trope that has been around for awhile. Sometimes, it’s quite harmless and lasts for a very limited period of time. In this case, I felt that the more the days passed and the bigger the lies became, the more I cringed and the less I liked the twins, especially Jackie. For me, covering for a family member definitely has its limits. When a large family like the Albright family welcomes an unknown person into their lives, the last thing you want to do is hurt them. The lie lasted way too long and was stupid to begin with. Shame on a lot of people here.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

‘The Duplicate Bride’ is such a great take on swapping places, as it involves taking the place for pre-wedding events with the soon to be groom! When Hope, is asked by her high maintenance twin sister, Jackie, to substitute for her, Hope agrees as she is the complete opposite of her sister. Yet her kindness, leads her to feel intense guilt over deceiving Brent and his family, whilst struggling to keep her sister happy. Yet the more time that Hope and Brent spend together, the more that Hope realises her feelings for him are more than they should be. Brent appears to be actually falling in love with his soon to be bride, thinking all the while that Hope is actually Jackie. The more time he spends with her, the more he begins to appreciate what is of importance.
This was a sweet romance that had me entertained from the very beginning, wondering at what point, Brent would discover Hope’s true identity. There were some really funny moments, balanced by the romance between two well-fleshed out characters. It is so good to find another new novelist to follow!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The blurb of this book intrigued me. The old twin switcheroo, but I haven't seen it for pre-wedding festivities. That was truly an intriguing twist. I felt for Hope because she's between a rock and a hard place. Helping out her twin, but falling for her twin's fiancée. That sets up complications galore especially for Brent when he thinks his fiancée has let her hair down for once. I really liked Hope right from the beginning. One of my first thoughts was I would so be friends with her. Then throw in Brent and his awesome family. This book had me sold. Awesome characters with a fascinating storyline will have you gobbling up this book.

This is my first book from Ginny and definitely won’t be my last. Hope and Jackie are twins and live a very different lives, she is a teacher and Jackie is a wedding planner for the riches and famous. But on Jackie’s own wedding week with Brent, she is too busy to attend the gatherings with his family in Blue Hill, Maine.

That’s when Jackie beg for Hope to pretend to be her for one day, like they used to do when younger. Although Hope firmly says no, when she gets to the state only to almost run over Brent’s mom and his a run in with his “evil” grandmother. But what was shocking for Hope was that Brent, her sister’s fiancé, thought she was the soon to be bride. Shocked she decides to pass as her sister so she can fix things for her.

What goes down from there is a lot of fun, romance and mind I say, a lot of angst. Because as Hope finds out that what her sister and Brent have is a marriage of convenience, she also finds out that she has a lot of attraction to him. So they get to know each other better and at some point I couldn’t help but cheer for them to really be together, they were so good with one another.

However, within every page Hope gets attached not only to Brent but his family as well, but although her feelings are very real, all of the time she spends with them are lies! I honestly couldn’t understand how the author would turn things around so Brent and Hope could be together, because damn, the farce was too big! And his family was sooo amazing that I was sad that all that happened.

At times I screamed a lot with the book, things like: don’t do this, tell him the truth, omg this is not going to end well!!!! I said this last one too many times to count.

But Ginny managed to work things through, with a lot of pain mind I say, but Brent and Hope had their happy ending. I hoped that we get more scenes with them finally together and their dynamics, specially with their future. This was an unusual romance, but it was worth the reading!

The Duplicate Bride is a whimsical romantic tale featuring identical twins; one a workaholic wedding planner for the upper echelon , the other a lowkey school teacher. When Jackie is busy with a high maintenance wedding but her own nuptials are a week away, she can't leave the high profile wedding she's managing. Jackie pulls a favor with her twin, Hope, wanting Hope to step in as her during the wedding week festivities. It's only supposed to be for a couple of days and then they will "trade" back. Hope puts her foot down but a case of mistaken identity puts the ball in motion. Hope can do this for a couple days. She'll try to woo the standoffish grandmother and help blend Jackie into the family she doesn't really know, especially Jackie's fiancé, Brent. What is only supposed to be a couple days becomes much longer and Hope has a a hard time keep up the charade. Jackie's future in-laws and Brent are wonderful people.

I spent a lot of this book cringing - not in a bad way but in a "Oh, Hope, this is not going to end well for you" way. Her intentions were wonderful, if not completely unethical and deceitful. Hope blended in nicely with the family in a way you could tell Jackie didn't in the few interactions she may have had with them. Even Brent warmed to Hope much better than is alluded to when he spent time with Jackie.

Hope and Brent together were cute. They brought out the best in each other. While Hope is a strong and independent woman, Brent brought out her need for companionship and love. Hope also allowed Brent to discover his true wants, needs, and desires concerning marriage, taking over the family business, and opening himself up again after a disastrous previous relationship.

I was engaged in their story from the very beginning. I devoured this book in one day. I was anxious for Hope, hopeful for her and Brent, and thoroughly disgusted with Jackie for suggesting the switch, and not being upfront with Brent and his family. I didn't agree with Hope's actions either but she truly thought she was doing the right thing at first. The charade should have never gotten as far as it did.

I enjoyed this contemporary romance. The author's writing style is smooth and conversational. The characters has depth and development. The setting was written well and I was able to visualize the story as I read along, right down to the "eye" from Grandmother Margaret. I will seek out more from this author.

I really enjoyed this book by Ginny Baird! I initially found it unbelievable that a groom could not tell the difference, but as the story unfolds it becomes plausible. All of the characters are well written. My favorite character actually became Grandma Margaret. I look forward to reading other books by Ms. Baird.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley for my voluntary honest review.

The Duplicate Bride is a charming contemporary romance by New York Times bestselling author Ginny Baird. A sweet romance that is the perfect getaway read!

2.5/5* rounded up to 3/5*

Identical looking twin sisters Hope and Jackie Webb have pulled some stunts in their time and not many people can reliably tell them apart on looks alone but their personalities are very different. Actually, so are their attitudes to diet and exercise so it is really amazing that they are so identical! Hope can't believe that her workaholic sister is asking her to pretend to be her to enable her to keep working rather than meeting and staying with Jackie's fiancè and his family for the week in the run up to their wedding. It is only for the one day, so there shouldn't be any problems, should there? Except Jackie's arrival keeps getting delayed . . .

I really looked forward to reading this book, the synopsis had me hooked and I really wanted to know how it would work out. However, although it is easy to forgive the initial deception, as the week progressed and Hope gets closer to Brent and his family it just felt so wrong and downright cruel of them. Jackie certainly never seemed invested in Brent, even if this was a marriage of convenience she appeared to have absolutely no intention of putting any effort into their relationship and comes across as selfish and self-absorbed - definitely not good enough for someone as caring as Brent proves to be. Hope may have started the deception with the best of motives but as the week progresses I just couldn't believe she maintains it. The last few chapters bring it all to a lovely conclusion but by then I was feeling uncomfortable with their actions and no longer invested in them achieving a HEA. However, others will be able to see past all this and thoroughly enjoy the book so don't let me put you off. I'd be interested in reading if you thoroughly enjoyed it or felt like me about it. It is well written and has some great family characters, I just wish the twins had been honest much earlier in the story.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for my copy of this book which I voluntarily read and have honestly reviewed.

Here comes the bride...but is it really?

Talk about a case of mistaken identity, only the mistake was easy enough to make considering the circumstances. When you have identical twins, stepping in for one another is part of the game, I'd imagine...but what starts as a way of Hope helping out her sister Jackie, soon becomes something so much more DANGEROUS than a stand-in bridal week appearance or two. What's at stake? Only the greatest thing of all...their hearts...and I do mean ALL of them.

When I reached a certain point towards the beginning of the book, I honestly couldn't fathom how the rest was going to unfold. It seemed there as simply too many pages left to fill with not enough story to tell...and yet, it worked. We get to know the sisters for who they are individually, not simply their easily confused exteriors. We get to know Brent (*sigh*), the groom-to-be, and his entire family, while finally making some sense of the great showdown supposedly brewing between the real bride and his Grandmother. We get all the feels as Hope begins to get her heart entwined in everything transpiring, and Brent considers the possibility of something more from his marriage than he had at first set his eyes on. We have the highs (that picnic!), the middle humdrums of happiness (falling in love with the groom-to-be AND his family...could you get more perfect...well, if you were actually the bride!), and the lows (I'm not even going to mention them because you'll get there soon enough if you read it)...all wrapped up in a gorgeous package, just begging to be read from cover to cover.

So if you're looking for a sweet romance with the potential for over the top happiness and heartbreak, this is definitely the story for you! For readers concerned with the heat factor, this one is definitely low on the blush scale, but filled to the brim with heart!

Thank you so much to Entangled Amara and Netgalley for letting me read an early copy of the Duplicate Bride! This book comes out today, so make sure you go check it out! I've always thought being an identical twin would be super cool- especially the whole switching places with said identical twin thing but the two sets of identical twins I know hated that and hated getting confused with each other, so they always did everything they could to be as different as possible, which was sometimes hard because they somehow always had very similar interests (one set was super athletic and played all the sports and the other set was super creative and they both sang and did musical theater). Anyway, overall, the Duplicate Bride was a cute, fun read that I enjoyed!

The Duplicate Bride 4/5 Stars

Summary from Goodreads:

Hope Webb can’t believe her twin sister, Jackie, is begging her to swap places and play fiancée at Jackie’s pre-wedding festivities. Sure, it’s only a business-deal sort of marriage, but Hope is a carb-loving teacher who enjoys curling up with a good book. Jackie is a workaholic whose idea of a good time is a brisk five-mile run at the crack of dawn. The two sisters couldn’t be more opposite.
Now Hope is stuck in the middle of a warm, tight-knit family she can’t help but adore and a groom who turns out to be entirely wonderful...for her.
Hotel magnate Brent Albright knows something is off about his fiancée, but he doesn’t care. Gone is the driven woman with similar career goals, and in her place is someone warm and funny who not only charms his family but him as well. She’s doing everything she can to avoid him, but that’s probably just nerves. Two people about to wed couldn’t know each other less.
Now Brent is determined to woo his fiancée, for real this time, because the more he gets to know her, the more his sweet fiancée turns out to be entirely wonderful...for him.
And that’s when things start to get really complicated...
This book started out a little hokey- like oh we're adults, but I can't make my own wedding week because I'm too busy, so I need you to play me like we used to do as kids- so I was so glad that Hope initially told Jackie that she wasn't going to do it. I don't 100% understand why she felt the need to change her mind once she got to Blue Hill, but fine, when your family's name is on the line, I guess you deal. I got more and more angry at Jackie the longer the charade went on and the longer she pushed out her arrival time and the more Brent and Hope ended up liking each other. Overall, I really liked all of the characters (ugh besides Jackie, but like you need a villian/someone to hate) and the plot moved at a good pace. There were just enough cringey scenes that every good romance novel needs and the perfect amount of cute scenes and it ends with a great happy ending that's actually super realistic. I really enjoyed the Duplicate Bride!

With a premise like this you pretty much know what is going to happen, the trick is in crafting a story that is engaging and characters that you like. I would say this book just about does that. Hope is a very likeable character and despite her questionable decision making you still want to see her get her happily ever after. I wasn't sure what to think of Brent at first, but came to like who he was when he was with Hope. Seeing their relationship develop was the best part of the book. I also really liked that he recognized he was partly to blame for everything that had happened - had he known anything about the woman he was marrying he never would have been fooled the way he was. The marriage of convenience aspect was certainly something new, but allowed the premise to work better.

I thought the scene where Hope first pretends to be her sister was really well done. It's funny and you can see how/why Hope let herself get caught up in the whole charade. However, I then got frustrated with Hope because there were plenty of ways she could have gotten herself out of the entire mess. I also thought having her keep up the act through the actual wedding was a little too much.

One thing I would have liked to have played out in the book was the fallout from Brent finding out the truth - what was that conversation between Jackie and Hope like? And Brent and his family? I also would have liked it if Hope had gone to see Brent's grandmother rather than just written a letter - but I understand that the letter was necessary to set up the ending.

As for the ending, I did really like the way it played out between Brent and Hope. It fit what you had come to know about the characters and fit within the story.

The Duplicate Bride was such a cute contemporary read. The whole story definitely had an element of 'couldn't put downess' that makes a book special.

Hope is finally on summer vacation after another year of teaching and the only thing on her schedule is her sister's upcoming surprise wedding. When her sister calls needing a favor, Hope wishes she'd never answered the phone. Jackie wants Hope to switch places with her while she finishes up getting her current wedding panned out. Hope says absolutely not and plans to stick to that, until she gets to Jackie's future in-laws and they not only assume Hope is Jackie, the grandma also insults her. Hoping to help bridge the distance between the families, Hope pretends to be Jackie and quickly finds herself falling for Brent, her sister's fiance.

I don't want to go into more since spoilers, but this was a cute read and definitely wasn't what I expected. I enjoyed this story and thought it was super cute. The ending felt a bit rushed, but overall I enjoyed the writing style, the flow, and the characters to want to keep reading the entire story in one go. I can't wait to see what Ginny Baird does next.

The Duplicate Bride was my first book by Ginny Baird and color me impressed. The premise of this book was what drew me in.

Twin sisters Jackie and Hope are as different as night and day - personality wise, so when Jackie asks her twin to step in for her, the week before her wedding, so she can handle work issues, Hope is justifiably shocked. The plan is for Hope to help her sister out but not take her place.

What ends up happening is very different. Hope becomes Jackie and things get difficult when she discovers that a) her sister’s engagement is not what it seems and b) she is extremely attracted to her soon to be brother in law.

Intrigued? Need to know more? If yes, then this is the perfect book for you. The Duplicate Bride is a sweet and funny, clean romance with all kinds of twists and turns that will keep you glued to the page. TBR and Enjoy!

Having read Ginny Baird books before, many of them centered around weddings and brides, I was excited to read her newest. With its twin swapping nod to The Patent Trap, a favorite movie, I was looking forward to some fun frolics of schoolteacher Hope trying to imitate her career driven sister
Jackie’s more no nonsense personality.
Instead, Hope played herself, but used Jackie’s name. While the deception started innocently enough, with Hope trying to help form a bond between Brent’s family and her sister, Hope and Brent start to bond in a way he never did with a Jackie.
The longer the story and deception went on, the more implausible the story became for me. And when others got sucked into, and went along with, the switch, the more I began to dislike both sisters. I never liked Jackie, to be honest, but I think I expected more of Hope, especially since Brent really began to open up to her.
For me, the story went on too long and the play acting went way, way farther than it should have. While Hope was trying not to hurt anyone, she inevitably hurt everyone. I will say that a Jackie is the character who in my eyes is the most irredeemable, so it’s there’s any sort of sequel about her, I’ll be passing on that book. Hope was saved only because of Brent’s feelings for her and her own remorse. I’m grateful that this was a clean romance!
The writing was fine but the plot got away from this reader...and I think possibly the author as well. 2.75 stars.